After Ian's fateful encounter with Rio, Arthur and the rest, he decided to stay there in Erza's village for a while and help the villagers out. Rianne and the rest of her group members also wanted to stay and help him out but Ian refused. He learned that they were there for business and asked them to not mind him and continue their journey.Rianne had a look of disappointment at those words. But she didn't voice any complain or argue back. At least to her, it was pretty clear that Ian was avoiding her; or at least trying to do so. It made sense. "Well then.. I guess this is goodbye?"She said those words while mounting her ride. Her interest in Ian was clear and so was her reluctance to leave him behind. Ian wasn't a child either. He was aware of the interest he was getting from her. Although he couldn't understand why she would feel that way after so long while she ignored the original Ian so strongly. But feelings were just like that. They couldn't be explained, neither could th
Days passed. And then weeks. Ian left Erza's village with his people after camping there for three days. It was the time he took to think things over. And in the end, his decision was quite unexpected. Arthur was sure that he'd go back with him this time. Afterall, the only issue keeping Ian away from his home was finally resolved. There was no more reason for him to wonder in the wilds like this, like a homeless person. "You should go back."Ian said those words while looking Arthur straight in the eyes. There was no hesitation in his voice. Arthur, in the middle of sipping his tea, was frozen still in shock and disbelief. "Why?""I don't understand.""They're all waiting for you.""You should go back home. You need to go back home.""Back to us."Arthur said those things, pausing after every sentence, with a confused tone. He wasn't even trying to understand Ian's point of view at this point. He just knew he needed to take Ian back, back by his side. "I'm not going. Not right n
"You don't mind?"Arthur asked, curious and a little bit scared. He was sure Ian would get mad. He did show emotion similar to agitation when he mentioned a tracking spell.A soul contract was even worse. So Ian's sudden curiosity didn't make sense. "Well.. It sounds interesting.. ""I don't mind having a two-way communication line among us."Ian was looking at the bigger picture. Nothing good would come out of Arthur knowing his location 24/7 in real time but if he could also know what Arthur was doing and even communicate with him, that was a different matter altogether."So you know about the details.."Most people didn't even know that soul contracts allowed communication. Ian had extensive knowledge about this world only because he read the novel. Arthur was always surprised by how much Ian knew about everything."But how are we gonna do it?"Ian asked, stepping forward. His eyes were literally glistening with curiosity like a kid. "Balancing the two souls, usually it's impossi
'Haah..What a mess..' Arthur thought to himself as he felt a headache brewing at the back of his head. Currently he was in the middle of a meeting held at the King's palace. Most nobles from the capital was present there, as well as the King and Prince Albert. The only remarkable absence was the Duke, Miller Dicarious. It was a meeting held with the purpose of deciding on Arthur's rewards. He was called back to the capital after Arthur and his team manager to take over all of the headquarters of the enemies and given a grand welcome. Next was the awarding ceremony. The King and Prince Albert had already come to a conclusion. They wanted to promote Arthur to a higher position and bestow him the title of a Duke along with appropriate properties/land/mines, servants and knights on the capital. But the problem lied with the nobles from the other fraction. Although the second Prince was on Albert's side, his mother had no intention of accepting that fact. The Queen's faction, out of
"My apologies for being late, your majesty. The traffic was quite heavy today."The guy in the robe removed the hood from his head and gave the King a small bow as he apologized for his delay. But anyone present there could tell at a glance that neither did the apology sound genuine nor was his fake expression. The King didn't mind though. Afterall, the person in front of him was someone he greatly adored. Ian. "Someone finally decided to return home?"The King asked, instantly feeling a boost in his mood after seeing Ian's cherry expression. The stiffling atmosphere inside the meeting room disappeared as a batch of fresh air covered the whole place. Even the people that didn't welcome his presence could feel their tensed muscles ease up without understanding why. The reason was simple. Ian was a living, breathing mana purifier afterall. "What could I do? I dearly missed my mother's snacks."Ian rubbed his belly as he whined. The occasional snacks Olivia made and brought into his
Ian had a big grin on his face as he felt the various types of aggressive mana targeted against him. It was unconscious. The situation remined him of his past as Noah where he had to always face a bunch of enemies all by himself. He was always outnumbered and overpowered. Yet he always managed to come out victorious somehow.Ian's smile wasn't invisible to the other's inside the room either. They could all see it clearly. And that smile, in a situation like that, meant nothing but provocation."Hey.. Control your expression."Albert nudged him softly from the sides as he whispered. He was afraid that a fight would break out if this kept going on. It also helped Ian snap out of his daze, reminiscing about his glorious days. "Do you think these guys will listen?"Ian asked Albert, seeing the little bit of hesitation that was still there, somewhere hidden deep inside. A lot has changed, but there was still trace of the meek personality that this guy had in the past. "We can't just get
After abruptly coming back to the capital and threatening the nobles, Ian had to spend a few more days handling matters related to that. He had to, no, he insisted on watching over the nobles as they paid for their sins by doing various activities such as paying respect to the deads, helping their family members out, clearing false accusation from peoples name, making public confessions etc etc. The nobles all went to great lengths fulfilled their task, specially since Ian made it very clear that he was watching over every single one of them, carefully. Ian did all that during the day and took care of some underworld businesses during the night. Like that, a week passed. Ian barely got any sleep during the whole time but his body was as energetic as if he had just woken from a great nap. It was all thanks to Jet and the others who kept Ian on top shape all the time. "You should take a break."Albert said with concern as he watched Ian scan through huge mountains of documents. Albe
Ian blacked out. He and the Crown Prince had decided to have a drink after everything was settled. It was Ian's invitation so Albert was more than happy to accept.After Ian was done dealing with the nobles, he came back to the palace. By the time they started drinking, it was already late at night. Ian took out a bunch of snacks from his space ring. These were all food he had collected from all over the continent while on his journey to save and rescue people. Since he didn't accept any money in return for his service, they all showered him with lots of love and local food to show their gratitude.Ian found it cute so he accepted them the first time. After that, he came up with the idea to collect and share these variety of food with the people back home so he kept collecting them from then on. His target was finally being fulfilled. "How much food do you have stored inside your ring anyway?"Albert asked, casually, seeing how Ian was always taking one thing or the other out of h
Ian returned. After wondering the continent for half a year, he came back with a 'Bang!'. Right when the nobles all around the country gathered to 'show the hero his place', Ian returned. Crazy hypothesises such that Ian being a Devil worshipper, betraying the country and being on the run or that he's actually a demon etc etc all came to an end as he openly took Arthur's side and threatened the other nobles.Of course, most of those rumours weren't too far off the mark. Ian did prefer villains over heroes, demons over angels, he had no love for their country and lastly, he was a darkness ability user with a twisted moral sense. And! To top it all off, he also preferred these rumours over ones that would hail him as a hero. he'd rather be on the run after being called a demon rather than be called a hero and worshipped. Again, twisted morality. But he couldn't do that this time. There were too many people using his name so he couldn't just let it be as those people got treated bad
"It's been a week since young master lost consciousness."Rob wrote in his diary as he sighed. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding the duchy ever since the day Adrian fell down from the roof and went into a coma. How or why it happened was still a mystery around the duchy but speculations about an attempted suicide was slowly spreading around. Rob didn't believe them though. The Adrian he knew was too selfish and arrogant to do something like that. Yet, even when he was so sure, a small part of his mind kept lingering over that quiet and motionless room where Adrian was."Ah.. It's been a while."With that, Rob went to take another look at the sleeping Adrian for the 36th time that day. Although he was telling himself that Adrian's situation wasn't that serious, that he'd wake up soon, as he tried to remember all the bad things Ian did in his short lifetime just to mask his worry, he didn't even realise that he was unconsciously heading towards Ian's room again. After worryin
Things Ian did(Unintentionally or intentionally) that influenced the future of Arthur's world: First of all, although the effect wasn't that eye-catching at the moment, Ian was going to be known as the figure that erased racial discrimination. Due to him giving shelter to people of all age and race, and the humans around him having constant changes in their views and perspective, it was going to be the seed that erased all future discrimination and racial profiling. Secondly, he was going to be known as the bridge between Humans and the Demons. The Queen of the Demons, Ash's mother who had gone back to the demon world to deal with some 'internal affairs' would soon return with an actual offer of friendship between the demons and the humans. It was Bela's way of showing gratitude to the people who had taken care of her son in his times of need. Ian's love for Ash was plain as day and the care and gentleness he showed when dealing with him was no different from what a parent woul
"What..?""That's absurd!""Is that sorcery? Does he think he can fool us so easily?!"There were looks of disbelief, shock and confusion on everyone's faces as they looked at Ash. But no matter how tough they acted or how oblivious they tried to be, the bone chilling aura coming from Ash that slowly filled the room was undeniable. It was an aura that was impossible for any human to manifest, dark and scary."It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not.""I'm not the one behind bars looking at lifetime imprisonment and possible death sentence."Ian shrugged his shoulders in a casual manner as he signaled for Ash to stop. He was only here to give these people a chance. A chance at repentance. If they refuse to grab it, he didn't care less whether they died or lived inside a cage forever. 'Human resources are valuable after all.'That was one of the other reasons why Ian was here. He wanted to bind all these people under contract and have them serve the country. It didn't sit right
"You're gonna let them go?" Arthur asked, conflicted, as he looked at Ian. They were currently in an underground prison, the biggest prison that was made on Ian's request under the Duchy. The war criminals, the cult members, were being held here. Seven days had already passed since Ian's soul returned to his body. He was forced to have complete bedrest this whole time by his parents and the kids. They finally let him go after he managed to manipulate them emotionally with everything he had. It was a difficult job indeed. But nothing was impossible for Ian. "Let them go? NO?" Ian asked back in utter shock instead. But it wasn't Arthur's fault that he misunderstood. Ian did indeed say something that could be easily misinterpreted. "But you just said 'It's time to go out.'..?" That's what he said. To the criminals. Not that he meant it literally. "To the hall. TO.THE.HALL." Ian repeated himself twice, once for the criminals and once for Arthur. Everyone captured already had
Ian's time with the kids were cut short as the Dicarious couple arrived in a haste. A part of Ian was happy to see them again after so long. But a part of him was also wondering if they really were there for Ian. What if they were expecting their son to come back? What if the person they expected to see coming to his senses was Adrian and not him? How disappointed they would be. With a mixture of these various emotions coursing through his mind, he failed to make any type of expression when faced with those two people. Neither could he smile wholeheartedly nor apologize and cry. The kids were guided outside by Arthur and Albert, giving Ian and his parents the room to themselves. Ash was reluctant to leave seeing Ian's expression, but the atmosphere was too heavy for him to interfere. So while everyone else went to another room, he stayed, waiting while standing outside Ian's room. The others also didn't force him to leave since they didn't know which was better. "Are you
"YOU!"Smack!"THOUGHTLESS!"SMACK!"BAS-! JER-!! PERSON!"Ian had to wake up from his peaceful sleep with the sound of someone's shout along with the obnoxiously loud yet not so painful smacking of the pillows."Ow ow ow.. what the hell...?""Huh?""I'm back?"Ian woke up rubbing the back of his head that was the victim of continuous battering and looked around. The changed bedroom and the familiar faces made him aware of the fact that he had indeed come back. "What?""What are you talking about, young master? You didn't go anywhere."Both Albert and Arthur looked concerned as they checked Ian's status for any abnormalities. Only after multiple checking did they finally sigh in relief. "Ah no.. ""Hey guys.. Long time no see?"Ian greeted the kids and the Prince and the Knight all together while leaning back on his bed. The one responsible for the ruthless battering from before still had a massive pout on their face as they silently glared at Ian. "Are you angry? I'm sorry. How lo
Ian enjoyed the tea from hell while having a long and informative conversation with death, or at least that's who he assumed the other person was. He learned about the past that he had locked away and the people he had forgotten. But it all felt distant, like he was viewing the life of somebody else. "Why did I do that? Lock my memories?"Ian was curious. Just by watching the memories of Noah's future, he could tell that he lived a pretty okay life. The daughter he adopted also turned out to be great. She became his family. These were precious memories. So he couldn't understand why he'd lock them up like this. "After I presented you with my request, this is what you told me."Death continued showing Ian another set of completely different memories. An old man, wrinkly hand, white hair, hazy eyes. The room looked similar to the one he was in right now, and so was the person in front of them. "The me right now cannot save a world.""The blade has already lost it's edge.""I've grow
"What do you mean by welcome back?"Ian asked, confused. As far as he could remember, never before in his life did he see this man or these scenes. And these weren't circumstances that he'd forget 'by chance' either. "After your first death, you came here.""First death.. Ah.. When I jumped down the bridge?"Ian remembered his last moments as Noah. The music that played, the scenery he watched on top of that bridge, they were all very memorable. Yet, he had no memory of coming to this place.But unlike Ian's thoughts, the guy in front of him shook his head in denial. Not understanding exactly which part he was denying, Ian tilted his head to the side slightly."What death are you talking about then?""You didn't die back then."The guy sat down on the bed, facing Ian and the endless hell behind him as he spoke. "When you were at the verge of losing consciousness, you heard a childs cry.""A child?""Yes. It was the final monster outbreak." Ian wondered what this guy was talking abo